1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the area of delivering multimedia services over the Internet, and more particularly to techniques for distributing restricted media to client machines associated with consumers, wherein the restricted media means those electronic versions of multimedia contents being restricted to be released over a data network only within a limited time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Co-pending U.S. application describes an improved media service that is provided using distributed sources to fulfill an order of a title. Data pertaining to a title (e.g., a movie) is segmented into decimated segments, each of the segments is pre-cached in one or more client machines. When an order is received in a server, the server is configured to determine what other client devices that shall be designated to provide needed data segments to fulfill the orders. According to instruction data from the server, the designated client machines upload the relevant data segments to the ordering client machine.
At the same time, each of the client machines associated with a subscriber or a user has its own setting. The personal settings for a receiver can not be more important because each user has his/her own settings as to which types of movies/music to receive or not to receive, which ones are more preferable than others, and etc. In some cases, the personal settings define how a local personalized library in the library being offered is created, formed and maintained. These settings provide a convenient environment to access the services more effectively and more personally.
In commercial applications, each of the client machines may need to be taken off the network for various reasons (e.g., repairing). A simple immediate replacement of the machine would not work because the replacement does not have the personalized setting and updated data segments. On the other hand, depending on the time the particular machine has been offline, the machine could be completely obsolete with respect to other client machines by the time it is back online.
During the time a client machine is offline, there may be new releases that are only available for a limited time. When the client machine is back online, some of the new releases may not be available. It would be disappointing to the user of the client machine that some of the new releases are not available because of a brief breakdown of the client machine.
There, thus, is a need for techniques that enable a client machine to perform as if it is updated when it is returned to a network.